Red Burns is the chair of the Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School
of the Arts at New York University, a pioneering graduate center for the study and design of
new communications, media forms, and applications. The program emphasizes the user's cre-
ativity rather than the machine. She founded the Alternate Media Center in 1971. During the
70s and 80s she was Director of Implementation for a series of projects, including two-way
television for senior citizens, telecommunications applications for the developmentally disabled,
and one of the first field trials of Teletext in the United States. This work led to the develop-
ment of the Interactive Telecommunications program in 1979. Professor Burns's current
projects include a CD-ROM on chaos theory and an interactive cable/telephone experiment,
The Electronic Neighborhood. She teaches in the graduate program, has served on many
committees, consulted with non-profit groups, and spoken publicly on new communication
technologies.